The latest energy and climate change white paper from the UK government pushes a green energy revolution which would see 40% of the UK’s energy generated from renewable energy sources by 2020, creating 1.2m new green jobs.
With the UK unemployment rate is at a 12 year high, the prediction of 1.2 million green jobs may represent a light at end of the tunnel. However the results of the first Carbon Salary Survey†, which surveyed over 1100 climate change professionals around the world, showed that 37% of those working in climate change jobs in the UK currently, are not UK citizens.
This raises the question – does the UK have the skilled work force needed to fill these specialist positions?
At Acre we have seen the global green job market grow steadily in the past 12 months, and while there has been little growth in traditional technical environmental disciplines, the number of specialist climate change jobs has increased by nearly 50%. In some areas we are seeing the demand for good staff already outstripping supply; for example mechanical and electrical engineers within the renewable energy sector.
We are seeing countries such as Germany and Spain leading on wind power and solar power generation respectively, meaning that the lion’s share of the established talent is situated away from the UK. So when renewable systems companies want to attract the best talent they often have to look further a field.
I feel the UK government needs to do more to entice renewable power system manufacturing companies to the UK if we are to generate anywhere near the numbers of jobs currently being suggested.
Only then will companies based in the UK be able to develop the talent “in-house” and only then can the UK be seen as a leader in the field of renewables.
Even then the likelihood is that a good deal of the talent will be from overseas. The fact of the matter is that the demand for qualified and talented engineers outstrips supply and the green power sector is no different.
The impact that a green energy revolution could have on the UK job market and economy, in addition to mitigating climate change is undoubtedly positive, however achieving these goals and delivering a low carbon economy, I believe, will require more support and commitment from the UK Government.
Andy Cartland, Managing Director and Co-founder of Acre Resources specialists in green jobs
Tags: Green Jobs
Well that is the future we are looking.
I myself feel as though my working life has just come to an abrupt stop. I have been trying to get a foot in the door in the ROV industry with as of yet no success and now with the big oil producers profits down things look worse. I have been involved in conservation since my teens but wnet on to explore other things. I have travelled a bit working where ever I went mainly fixing repairing most things that I came across. I am very mechanically minded but this does not count for much when it is not in the form of paper from university or college. I have been hearing of the state of new employees in the industry with the required background (paper qualifications) who when it come to the practical side of the job are worse than useless. I would love to be able to attend an interview or get a phone call/ e-mail and make arrangements for practical testing as opposed to just reading some text that turns out to be of no use.
The world is short of good quality practically capable people who when it comes down to it can actually do the job, not just talk the job.
So the skills gap is only going to get wider as the people who can do and care about doing it right and improving there skills get older and fewer and fewer.
Good luck with your search; I would love to help but I am afraid I do not look good on paper and I will probably be busy the rest of my life fixing other peoples mistakes and not really getting paid or thanked for it.
james.w.bates@gmail.com